Business Monitor
Inspirational thoughts are a business opportunity
Have you been inspired by an inspirational quote? Marketing expert, Paul Clapham, informs why you should jump on this bandwagon in 2020.
When I read words like ‘everywhere’ and ‘everybody’ in mainstream media I automatically add ‘in the posh north London streets I normally inhabit’.
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Still, inspirational quotes are definitely a thing and they are certainly a business opportunity for the garment decorator. But don’t run away with the idea that everybody loves them because it’s not so. People have been unfriended on Facebook (gasp!) for posting such quotes to the sceptical. IQs have been described as the stupid person’s idea of wisdom and (I wish I’d coined this one) word farts.
Flash in the pan
But isn’t this just a flash in the pan? By the time you are tooled up to take advantage it’s suddenly yesterday’s news and the woke folk are into something else. Maybe, but the potential in this case looks better.
Next time you’re in a bookshop take a look at the Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. It’s a set of illustrations with messages of hope. (Or if you’re me, blithering nonsense). The publishers have had to increase their print run by over 10 times just for the UK market and that was before the pre-Christmas book boom kicked in. It jumped straight into the non-fiction bestseller lists at number two, leapfrogging autobiographies by David Cameron, Andrew Ridgley, Debby Harry and John Humphrys. I predict that, annoyingly, it will be there longer than those four, too.
It’s not the only one. Indeed there are plenty such books jostling for readers’ plastic to be waved their way. Apparently Forbes’ most read article ever is a list of 100 such quotes. This is Forbes, like the FT in magazine format and almost as dry. That article has had 29 million hits.
You should also be aware that the inspirational quotes being touted don’t necessarily come from, let’s say, William Shakespeare, Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Hardy. Some indeed appear to owe their ‘fame’ to the fact that the author of the book likes that phrase regardless of its origins.
Overwhelmed by choice
Take a look at Amazon and you will be overwhelmed by choice. There’s the standard one-a-day 365 gobbets of happiness format, there’s the 100 greatest format and, indeed, 1000 greatest inspirational quotes. Personally, I like to get my money’s worth so I plumped for the latter.
Well, it was OK, but inspirational? Not really. But that’s all right. I can see how it could be a working bible for decorators. One T shirt a day with a message and if you have passing trade and a window you’d soon be getting sales.
As above, there are lots of stupid people seeking wisdom and probably many more wishing to imply that they are already wise. While I find the idea tempting, a marketing pitch based on ‘hey stupid person come here and get a piece of highly visible wisdom, only £9.99’.
This is clearly a big global market. But nobody appears to have any overall figures saying how big. So for the time being it’s one-two-three T shirts at a time. I predict that that will change. Big
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
nspirational quotes (IQs) are everywhere they tell me: greetings cards, books, social media, toilet walls and, sure enough, printwear.
markets have a habit of getting formalised and structured. See cannabis in the US as a case. Where are the likeliest business opportunities to be found? Back when me and God were both lads, students were suckers for this stuff. Things change but I’ll bet that hasn’t. They’ve got more money now as well. There surely must be a campus (or two) near you where there will be shops aimed at providing such goods to which you can
become a supplier. If you want to trade direct you’ll find that student unions are rather savvy these days.
I hate dragging politics into this column but at the time of going to press an election was on the horizon and Brexit still awaiting solution, I have little choice. Could an inspirational quote swing an election? My gut feeling says no, but some commentators are convinced that the Saatchi line, ‘Labour isn’t working’ was key to Mrs Thatcher winning in 1979. It has to be crystal clear and sharp as a tack, a combination rarely seen since in political publicity. You might reasonably ask who you are being asked to inspire to do what. It appears that that is the unwanted question. Inspiration, my dear, exists in its own right. This of course should be catnip to a salesman. You, Mr Customer, can believe any old pony that you like and more to the point wear the statement on your chest or back. Yes, sir, of course the earth is flat; yes, madam, of course a penis may be regarded as a female organ; no, sir, I don’t understand why so many people believe Charles Darwin and so few believe Genesis. Kerching, that’ll be think of a number of pounds, please. (It’s our moral duty to rob such people).
January 2020 |21 |
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